Have you stayed awake at night wondering about the meaning of the universe and its existence? Well, the issue is settled. It turns out that the universe as we know it might just be a two-dimensional realm that only appears to be real. A group of Viennese scientists with very large brains came up with a mathematical equation that makes this scenario possible, and published their research in the journal, Physical Review Letters.
The idea that the universe could be a hologram-like 3-D illusion onto some sort of flat, cosmic surface arises from the “holographic principle,” which states that all the data required to fully describe a region of space can be encoded in just two dimensions. These ideas were born in the 1990’s in the minds of physicists Dr. Gerard ‘t Hooft and Dr. Leonard Susskind – part of an attempt to solve the existential flaws in quantum physics and Einstein’s theory of relativity.
“If you know Plato’s Allegory of the Cave, then a way to understand the holographic principle is by saying that the information provided by the shadows is equivalent to the information provided by the objects that generate the shadows,” explained Dr. Daniel Grumiller, a professor at the Vienna University of Technology’s Institute for Theoretical Physics. “This principle, if correct, explains a number of puzzles in black hole physics pioneered by Stephen Hawking.”
The new research, which is far beyond the layman’s understanding of physics, found that it’s possible the holographic principle can apply to our universe. Therefore, everything we experience as real, including ourselves, might just be a hologram.
Enjoy the rest of holographic existence.
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